Wheeled shopping carts as conventionally utilized in department stores, supermarkets and related environments typically employ a large upwardly-opening basket for accommodating merchandise therein. The basket normally has a rear wall, known as a rear gate, associated with the handle end thereof and pivotally supported adjacent its upper edge to permit such carts to be nested one within another during storage of the carts. This rear gate also conventionally mounts a foldable seat assembly thereon for accommodating a small child. Many of these carts construct the basket of plastics material, with such basket frequently being of a one-piece molded plastic construction defining the bottom, front and opposed side walls.
In one known cart employing a molded plastic basket, a closed metal loop or ring cooperates with the upper edge of the basket and extends totally therearound for coupling the basket to the cart frame. In this construction, the front and side walls of the basket have an outwardly opening channel extending along the upper edges thereof, and the closed ring fits in this channel so as to provide an engagement with the upper edge of the basket around the three sides thereof, and the closed ring extends exteriorly around the upright frame rods which support the basket handle so that a fourth side of the ring extends transversely across the rear of the basket in the vicinity of the upper edge of the rear gate. The closed ring is typically resiliently engaged with the basket, which in an earlier construction employed a plurality of metal tabs protruding upwardly from the ring for engagement within recesses formed in the top wall of the channel, and which in a current construction employs resilient protrusions molded integrally with the walls defining the channel so as to permit the ring to be resiliently snapped into the channel. A cart employing a basket of this type, namely having a continuous closed loop or ring extending around the basket and across the rear of the basket, is believed to result in undesired complexity with respect to assembly inasmuch as the upper walls of the basket have to be deformed and then moved into engagement with the ring after the ring has been positioned so as to extend around the handle frame uprights. Examples of this construction are disclosed by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,999,794, 4,650,199 and D 247,953.
In an alternate construction of a shopping cart employing a plastic basket, the basket may be formed of one or more molded plastic pieces, and an outwardly opening channel extends along upper edges of the front and side walls thereof. A reinforcing element, such as an elongate metal rod formed into a U-shaped configuration, is engaged within the channel associated with the front and side walls. In this construction, the side legs of the U-shaped support rod are slidably inserted through small tunnel-like structures associated with the channel on the side walls for captivating the legs of the support rod. This construction does offer the advantage of not having to loop the support rod around the frame handles inasmuch as the support rod is of an open U-shaped configuration. Examples of constructions of this type are illustrated by U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,255,930 and 5,289,936.
The baskets associated with shopping carts are also frequently provided with stops associated with the side walls of the basket in the vicinity of the front wall so as to prevent the rear gate associated with a front nested cart from falling downwardly into the basket provided on an adjacent rearmost nested cart. For this purpose, various types of gate supports have been proposed, including providing a molded gate support on the upper inner edges of the basket side walls, or providing L-shaped metal brackets which secure to the metal support ring and which protrude upwardly and then inwardly over the top of the basket side wall so as to function as a gate stop. These constructions, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,865,448, may perform as a gate stop in a satisfactory manner but require either increased complexities with respect to molding of the basket due to regions of increased material thickness, or increased complexities associated with forming of the support loop by requiring gate stops protruding above the top edges of the basket side walls, which stops also detract from appearance and result in protruding edges which can be harmful.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a molded plastic basket for a shopping cart which is believed to improve upon known constructions of the types briefly summarized above. More particularly, this invention relates to a molded plastic basket associated with a wheeled shopping cart, which plastic basket has a generally U-shaped support rod engaged within an elongate channel extending along upper edges of the side and front walls of the basket, which support rod has constructional features to provide for desirable supportive engagement and reinforcement of the upper edge of the basket while at the same time permitting coupling of the support rod and basket to the rear frame uprights to facilitate assembly while providing desirable load transmission from the basket to the upright frame elements.
In the improved basket construction, as aforesaid, integral and monolithic protrusions on the support ring cooperate with the basket to simplify assembly of the support ring and basket while at the same time enabling the protrusions to function as gate stops positioned adjacent the upper edges of the side walls in the vicinity of the front wall. The gate stops create minimal visual disruption without creating any undesired sharp corners or edges.
In the improved shopping cart basket construction of this invention, the basket is preferably of a molded one-piece plastic construction which defines the bottom wall, an upright front wall and a pair of opposed upright side walls, whereby the basket defines a large upwardly-opening storage compartment which is closed at its rear end by a separate rear gate assembly. The molded plastic basket has an outwardly-opening channel extending lengthwise along the front and side walls adjacent the upper edge thereof, and a generally U-shaped support rod is engaged within this channel. The support rod is formed from an elongate monolithic wire rod which is bent into a U-shaped form so as to have a front bight joined through rounded corners to a pair of cantilevered side legs which diverge relative to one another as they project toward their rear free ends. The side legs, at a location positioned adjacent but spaced rearwardly a small distance from the front bight, have U-shaped protrusions formed therein, as by a bending operation, with these protrusions protruding horizontally inwardly in generally opposed relationship to one another. The U-shaped support rod is mounted in the channel of the basket by slidably inserting the side legs into the channel parts along the upper edges of the side walls, which channel parts at spaced locations have loops extending thereover to effect closure of the channel at selected locations, whereby the legs slide through the loops for confinement in the channel. The side walls of the basket, adjacent but rearwardly of the front wall, also have small openings therethrough in communication with the channel. The insertion of the support rod into the channel causes the U-shaped protrusions to align with and pass through the openings in the side walls so that the protrusions protrude inwardly through the side walls beyond the inner surface thereof so as to permit their functioning as gate stops when baskets of like carts are nested. The protrusions also effectively lock the support rod relative to the basket in the longitudinal (i.e., front-to-back) direction thereof. The rear edges of the basket side walls abut against or are engaged with upright frame elements which define the rear handle of the basket, and these rear frame elements have openings in front sides thereof which align with the channel so that rear free ends of the side legs of the support rod can protrude into the openings formed in the upright frame elements, the latter preferably being hollow tubes, thereby restraining sideward or vertical movement of the rear ends of the support rod legs, and also permitting load as imposed from the basket on the support rod to be transferred directly onto the rear frame elements.
Other objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent to persons familiar with constructions of this type upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.